Chapter 171: Evil Twin
Revel had been assigned a strange mission by her mother, which was already odd in of itself as it was usually her sisters who handled the political and espionage missions of the clan.
Revel herself dealt with powerful nightmare creatures and Awakened that needed to be taken care of... Nothing more, nothing less.
But this time, she had been assigned the mission of gathering information on two specific individuals.
One was the paragon of purity, who was one of the biggest celebrities right now and also someone she considered an "online friend."
Revel did not really care much about him, and she would kill him if he posed a danger to the clan...
Although she would be a little sad about it.
From what the reports had said, she only needed to find his location and whereabouts.
That was easily done through a couple of messages, as she was the only one who had his number.
From the look of it, Hugo was still in Antarctica and his location had not changed since the start of the Antarctica campaign.
As for her other assignment, she was told to go to meet a few government agents to receive documents about citizens all around the world with the name "Albedo"
There was not many with that name—only a few hundreds and from the look of it—and no one matched the description of the person her mother was looking for.
'how bizarre... Who is she be looking for?'
Revel was naturally curious about this, which was already unusual for her as she herself was not interested in any of the political business...
But still, she wondered why her mother was interested in someone like Hugo, and also the identity of this Albedo person.
But alas, she would probably never know.
***
[Current day.]
Around two months had passed since the start of the Antarctica campaign and also around the time Albedo had officially made a deal with the sovereign Ki Song.
He would deliver her apotheosis, and in exchange, she shall protect him and aid him in his endeavors.
Albedo only needed to remain loyal to the Song domain and help her take down another supreme.
How difficult can that be?
***
Albedo spent two months in Ravenheart, hidden in the upper levels of the jade palace.
No one was allowed to bother him, and no one knew of his existence as well, except for a few select individuals.
The daughters of Ki Song had been informed about his existence but they had been told by their mother to never associate with him. After all, he was still dangerous.
Albedo didn't care that much about the fact that he was lonely, after all he was given resources, time and a safe place to work in the palace.
He had ordered some stuff from the waking world that he would need to build his projects.
The god device itself would need to wait, after all the things needed to make it are extremely rare.
In the meantime, Albedo focused on studying the war realm and the current era, to make himself more useful.
'It seems the people of war have less knowledge about the other realms...'
There was also the fact that the existence of sovereigns was unknown to the general public.
The sovereigns must have had their reasons to hide their existence and whatever that reason was, it must've been quite dreadful.
In anyhow, Albedo has made progress in other areas, in order to gain the favor of the queen.
He suggested the idea of remaking the asura, the mighty machines of Mictlan.
The process of making them was not that complicated to him, however finding the right materials would prove quite difficult. They needed stone from the underworld, one that has been soaked and bathed in true darkness.
The queen, surprisingly, seemed to have a little bit of it. She claimed she had found it when she conquered the fourth nightmare.
'Conquering a fourth nightmare in the underworld... She must be mad.'
All of the children of war were mad, really. Fighting between themselves while the dream realm was devouring their realm was nothing short of madness.
Aside from that, Albedo has made an effort to redecorate his private quarters in the palace. Mainly with galvanic technology.
The queen was interested in the technology of the Galvans, but only for stuff like agriculture and sorcery. She claimed that her domain did not need to rely on the technology in their battles.
Each sovereign dedicated how their domain functioned and fought, so it made sense why she had chosen that.
Ki Song wants to cultivate powerful warriors who relied on their skills and abilities rather than memories and technology.
It made sense, after all the Galvans invented their technology because they were physically inferior to other races.
The flaw of the Galvans wasn't something that was shared by the children of war and so, gaining their own individual power was far more important than being armed with advanced weapons.
Albedo was not displeased by this decision, if anything he was glad it was made.
He was the only one who knew how to make galvan technology and so, he would've had to arm an entire domain with galvanic weapons which would've been a tedious task.
Making farm tools to cultivate the agriculture of Ravenheart was simple and effective, producing much food for the people here.
But Albedo was no fool. He knew that the queen could easily import food from the waking world and feed her domain, but it seemed that she was planning on evacuating all of humanity to the dream realm in a few years and so, the development of agriculture needed to begin now.
'With her authority, she can protect people from falling into nightmares, which would help them establish a civilization here....'
After the fall of the war realm, the dream realm would encompass all of existence. It would be everything and everywhere...
Even someone as smart as albedo could not imagine a reality like that.
He taught the queen how to use the agriculture galvan tools and from there, her puppets did the rest.
The second project that Albedo was focused on making was the Asuras.
The queen had made it clear that her domain would not rely on Galvanic weapons, however she seemed much more open to the idea of the Asuras.
They were, in simple terms, walking siege engines so it made sense why she would want them, and they were also individual powerhouses that would not be used by the entirety of her army.
Ki Song had enough stone to create seven mighty Asuras, which were not much but they would be extremely useful later on.
***
A small Gremlin-like alien with four-fingered hands, three-toed feet, and a devil-like tail was placing a plate of stone into a giant asura.
He is small in stature, only about as big as a human head, so he had to climb on the machine to work on it.
His hammer came down on the uneven parts, fixing them immediately, as if guided by a mystical ability.
After that was done, the small red goblin used runic sorcery to make sure the asura parts stayed together.
This was none other than Albedo, who had assumed the form of a Planchaküle, or as Ben Tennyson liked to call it, Jury Rigg.
This race of noble creatures was a master at crafting and sorcery, perhaps not as smart as the Galvans but they had an innate affinity to craftsmanship.
Usually, when using his transformations Albedo would end up naked, after all his abilities are innate and not from Omnitrix, so his alien forms are not clothed.
He had bypassed that problem by using runic sorcery and making a memory for himself, one that turned into various clothes whenever he transformed.
Albedo leaped off the asura and wiped sweat from his tiny forehead, marveling at his work.
In his workshop, which he had established at the eastern area of the jade palace, there was seven mighty Asuras of various designs. All of them were finished.
There was unique variation of the Asuras, each were used by the supremes of Mictlan a long time ago. For example, the eagle and the hummingbird had Asuras that could fly using their mighty wings. The otter had aquatic Asuras which could navigate the seas easily. The ape had Asuras that focused on defense and brute strength, and the leopard had Asuras focused on speed and agility.
And of course, there was the regular Asuras which didn't excel at any particular thing but did everything the others can do to a lesser extent. A perfect balance that merged all of them, but also wasn't as good as the others in their own fields.
'Now that both the asura and the agriculture tools are done, I can focus on upgrading my stabilizer...'
Ki Song had been working him like a slave, which of course, hurt his pride. But he had endured it. After all, he needed her to achieve his goals and this time albedo couldn't afford to repeat the same mistakes he made in the beast realm.
Back then, he had a chance to freeze himself and start over in the next realm, but now, he could not do that.
This was the final realm, and the last trace of civilization.
Albedo would either gain what he wants in this era, or die trying to do so.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, which snapped him out of his thoughts.
He grumbled a little and shouted:
"Coming!"
Albedo switched forms and assumed his human form in a flash of red light.
His human form looked much like Ben Tennyson and the other Omnitrix wielder of this realm, which was of course, unpleasant. But alas, it made the humans more comfortable in his presence which made his life a little easier.
He opened the door, expecting to find one of the queen's puppets, but instead he was shocked to find someone else.
There was a breathtaking woman with raven—black hair and eyes that seemed to be cut from pure obsidian. Her slender body was encased in a suit of dark leather armor.
With her alabaster skin, exquisite beauty, and cold expression, she was undeniably stunning... but, more than that, her presence was vast and oppressive, like the lightless expanse of a boundless, dark ocean.
'She's definitely not one of the puppets...'
The puppets of Ki Song either shared her presence, or had none at all.
Either way, Albedo was not terrified of this Saint presence as his own Transcendent presence was also changing the world around tem
His was far more sinister, though. It was as if his body was constantly changing forms and shapes, giving him the image of a thousand faced demon.
Looking at the black haired woman, Albedo crossed his arms.
"You must be one of the queen's daughters."
Revel looked at him with an aloof expression.
"And you must be Albedo... I must say, you look oddly similar to someone I know."
Albedo smiled.
"Are you sure it's not the other way around? Perhaps that person looks like me, instead of me looking like them."
Naturally, he knew who was she was talking about.
Revel gave him an odd look.
"I don't really give a damn, either way and I did not come here to chitchat. Mother has assigned me and you to a mission."
Albedo blinked a few times.
"Come again?"
"I said my mother has assigned us to a mission, let's go. You're wasting precious
time."
Albedo looked at her with an unimpressed look.
"Since when did I become one of the queen's vassals? As far as I know, our deal did not include me going on missions, especially not with immature saints. No offense."
Revel did not seem to be offended by his words, but she clearly did not like his attitude.
"I'd watch your mouth if I was you, creature. The last man that talked to my daughter like that ended up with a broken jaw."
Albedo and Revel turned their heads to see the source of the new voice.
It was a young man with a friendly expression, pale skin and long golden hair.
The two of them were not fooled, though.
After all this was not a servant or an Awakened... It was one of the queen's puppets.
How he ended up as one, neither of them wanted to know.
"I greet the queen."
Albedo offered a little bow, while Revel simply nodded at her mother's presence.
"Mother, may I ask why was I assigned a mission?"
Ki Song smiled at her daughter.
"Because you're a lazy bum, my dear. It's been two months since you left my basement so it's about time you get some exercise."
Albedo looked between the two in confusion.
"You live in your mother's basement?"
Revel shot him a fierce glare.
"It's a cave, not a basement and it's also none of your business." She looked at her mother with displeasure. "Can't I do it alone though?"
Ki Song shook her head.
"No. I've been wanting to test out Albedo's abilities for a while, and at the same time I also wanted you to go out and fight some nightmare creatures, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make you two do it together."
She looked at Albedo with a Stern expression.
"Of course, I'll be there to supervise, in case anything unexpected happens."
Albedo nodded, although he understood her words.
She still didn't trust him, and naturally she wouldn't want her daughter to get hurt by him.
'Humans are so tiring...'
All this rubbish was making him a little annoyed but alas, he didn't voice his opinion.
"Very well, what's the mission?"
Ki Song smiled.
"The conquest of a newly discovered citadel on the edges of the frozen wasteland. It's guarded by a great beast and some other weaker abominations, but you two should be able to handle it."
Albedo let out a long sigh.
He had a feeling that this was going to be extremely bothersome...